[From the “Married Beau,” a Comedy, by John Crowne, 1694.]
Wife tempted: she pleads religion.
Lover. Our happy love may have a secret Church
Under the Church, as Faith’s was under Paul’s,
Where we may carry on our sweet devotion;
And the Cathedral marriage keep its state,
And all its decency and ceremonies.
[From the “Challenge for Beauty,” Tragi-Comedy, by T. Heywood, 1636.]
Appeal for Innocence against a false accusation.
Helena. Both have sworn:
And, Princes, as you hope to crown your heads
With that perpetual wreath which shall last ever,
Cast on a poor dejected innocent virgin
Your eyes of grace and pity. What sin is it,
Or who can be the patron to such evil?—
That a poor innocent maid, spotless in deed,
And pure in thought, both without spleen and gall,
That never injured creature, never had heart
To think of wrong, or ponder injury;
That such a one in her white innocence,
Striving to live peculiar in the compass
Of her own virtues; notwithstanding these,
Should be sought out by strangers, persecuted,
Made infamous ev’n there where she was made
For imitation; hiss’d at in her country;
Abandon’d of her mother, kindred, friends;
Depraved in foreign climes, scorn’d every where,
And ev’n in princes’ courts reputed vile:
O pity, pity this!
C. L.
[458] The Plague: in which times, the acting of Plays appears to have been discountenanced.